Skopje, 22 January 2023 (MIA) — Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani on working visit to Sofia on Saturday called on citizens and politicians to “stop this cycle of provocations and violence from both sides” that jeopardize good neighborly relations between North Macedonia and Bulgaria.

Minister Osmani spoke to the press together with Bulgaria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikolay Milkov, after they visited in hospital the Macedonian citizen and ‘Tsar Boris the Third’ Bulgarian Club secretary Hristijan Pendikov who was assaulted by three people in Ohrid on Thursday.

“This act of violence does not reflect the values of the Republic of North Macedonia and our multi-ethnic society,” Osmani said, pledging that the state “will ensure there is zero tolerance for violence in response to any problem, least of all inter-ethnic coexistence, which is something sacred that we have been building for the last 30 years.”

He said the purpose of his visit to Sofia was to send a message that the countries are building good relations and would not let these efforts be sabotaged by provocations.

“We see the future in close cooperation and partnership with Bulgaria,” he continued. “Any provocateur, be it a politician from Bulgaria or North Macedonia, be it a thug from Ohrid or anywhere else… We will not allow these people to dictate our agenda.

“The Bulgarian community is and will be a respected community in the Republic of North Macedonia. They will have all the citizens’ rights, freedoms, and privileges that every community has and together with others, they will live equally free.”

Condemning the assault, Osmani also said any insults of the Macedonian people will not be tolerated.

“Those provocations should also stop,” he said, adding that anyone coming to North Macedonia to insult the Macedonian people would not be welcome any more.

“We will have to seriously address this and it should be their last visit to North Macedonia. So both questions we will have to address equally.

“The focus today is on the violence against Hristijan, which we need to condemn, and we must create an atmosphere of zero tolerance for it. But also for any provocations by politicians who come to North Macedonia and in the middle of Skopje deny the Macedonian people, insult the Macedonian people. We need to break this vicious cycle,” Osmani said.

Just as insults to Macedonians will not be tolerated, so will the Bulgarian community be guaranteed protection against violence of any kind, he pointed out.

“We will not allow anyone to offend the Bulgarian community or commit any violence toward any member of the Bulgarian community in North Macedonia and the state will guarantee it,” the foreign minister said.

Acting Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Milkov said Bulgaria would continue safeguarding the rights of the Bulgarian community in the Republic of North Macedonia.

“Bulgaria firmly insists that the perpetrators of this act and other similar acts be strictly punished by law in order to put an end to this atmosphere of impunity that keeps breeding new violence,” Milkov said.

He said “black traditions historically associated with North Macedonia” — burning, shooting and violence — should not be allowed to return.

“There is no place for such things in Europe and we are extremely worried about it,” he said, adding that Pendikov continued to receive threats on the Internet.

On Jan. 19, three people from Ohrid attacked Pendikov in an Ohrid restaurant, inflicting severe injuries.

On Jan. 20, the Bulgarian Embassy in Skopje organized his transfer to the Military Medical Academy hospital in Sofia. According to bTV, he is in the intensive care unit and will undergo surgery on Jan. 23.

Meanwhile, some media reported that Pendikov was a crime suspect and that the Ohrid incident may be related to drug dealing.

Sources familiar with the investigation confirmed to MIA that the police had filed charges against him December, indicting him with “the unauthorized production and release for trade of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors” under Article 215 of the Criminal Code.

But neither the MFA or the Ministry of Health have not issued their statements regarding the Macedonian citizen’s leaving the country on a Bulgarian government plane.

Sources from the Prosecutor’s Office said they were reviewing the charges and will share more information on Monday. They said Pendikov has given his testimony twice regarding the Ohrid incident and was available to the law enforcement authorities.

On Saturday evening, former judge Vladimir Tufegdzhikj said in a Telma TV appearance that the way Pendikov was taken out of the country was unprecedented. He also said the investigation into the bar fight that turned into a diplomatic scandal was compromised by politicians’ statements.

President Stevo Pendarovski and Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski as well as their Bulgarian counterparts Rumen Radev and Galab Donev condemned the incident, as did the EU Delegation in Skopje, urging the authorities to investigate the case.

A few days before the incident in Ohrid, Bulgarian politician and MEP Angel Dzhambazki sent provocative messages about territorial claims and that Macedonian politicians were “Serbs committing genocide against Bulgarians.” He also called the country “Bulgarian”.

Three days later, the Bulgarian MFA distanced itself from his statements and said they did not correspond with Bulgaria’s official stance.

The Macedonian MFA said at the time they were following with great attention “the statements of certain marginal political figures from Bulgaria whose provocations continue, without taking into account the efforts made by both countries to maintain constructive cooperation and a positive spirit in bilateral relations.” mr/